Call for Proposals for Digital Borderlands Mellon grant

By Kenya Johnson, University Libraries
Oct. 19, 2021
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Subject: Call for Proposals for Digital Borderlands Mellon grant
Date: Oct 19, 2021

The University of Arizona Libraries invite faculty, scholars, and interdisciplinary teams from the university to submit applications for the second round of grants to support research and digital scholarship in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

Friday, March 4, 2022 is the application deadline. 

With a $750,000 three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Libraries launched the Digital Borderlands project in 2020. 

Led by Shan Sutton, dean of University Libraries and principal investigator, and co-principal investigators Verónica Reyes-Escudero, head of Special Collections, and Megan Finn Senseney, head of Research Engagement, the project focuses on:

  • Digital Humanities

  • U.S. - Mexico Borderlands

  • Library service integration

  • Data-intensive research

  • Open access and digital storytelling

In May 2021, four proposals were each awarded a $60,000 micro-grant in the first round of this multi-year initiative to bring more visibility and awareness of often excluded stories, experiences, histories, and diversity in the borderlands. The first cohort of grant recipients represent a wide range of disciplines at the University of Arizona, while some project teams include organizations that serve communities in the border region.

In addition to strengthening the University’s commitment to creating new knowledge and being a leader in border studies, the project infuses library collections, expertise and services that support digital storytelling and publishing. Through this collaborative initiative, the Libraries are exploring what researchers in humanities and humanistic social sciences are discovering today in order to challenge and reimagine what library services will look like tomorrow. 

Interested applicants must register for one of the following mandatory proposal development virtual workshop sessions:

Tuesday, Nov 30, 9am-1pm
Register

Wednesday, Dec 1, 1pm-5pm 
Register

Thursday, Dec 9, 8am-12pm 
Register

Tuesday, Dec 14, 1pm-5pm
Register 

Visit the Digital Borderlands call for proposals for information.

The project team has assembled a review board composed of campus leaders with expertise in research administration, humanities scholarship, borderlands research, and/or digital scholarship. The review board will evaluate each application on its individual merits and also consider high-merit proposals in conjunction to balance disciplinary and topical coverage as well as capacity within the libraries to meet the needs of all proposals during the performance period.

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